Angleton was founded in 1890 near the center of Brazoria County and named for the wife of the general manager of the Velasco Terminal Railway.[6] A bitter rivalry emerged between the town and nearby Brazoria for the location of the county seat; Angleton was chosen as the seat in 1896 and rechosen by county-wide election in 1913. The town was incorporated on November 12, 1912.

As the county seat, Angleton hosts the Brazoria County Fair every October; it is considered Texas's largest county fair.[7]

As of the census of 2000, 18,130 people, 6,508 households, and 4,894 families resided in the city. The population density was 1,716.3 people per square mile (662.9/km²). There were 7,220 housing units at an average density of 683.5 per square mile (264.0/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 63.21% White, 23.19% Hispanic or Latino, 11.38% African American, 0.47% Native American, 1.12% Asian, 0.04% Pacific Islander, 9.63% from other races, and 2.15% from two or more races.

Of the 6,508 households, 41.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 56.5% were married couples living together, 13.9% had a female householder with no husband present, and 24.8% were not families. About 21.2% of all households were made up of individuals, and 8.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.75 and the average family size was 3.19.

In the city, the population was distributed as 29.8% under the age of 18, 9.0% from 18 to 24, 30.3% from 25 to 44, 20.1% from 45 to 64, and 10.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 33 years. For every 100 females, there were 94.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 88.9 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $42,184, and for a family was $50,019. Males had a median income of $39,711 versus $23,508 for females. The per capita income for the city was $17,915. About 8.9% of families and 11.1% of the population were below the poverty line, including 14.4% of those under age 18 and 13.8% of those age 65 or over.

1.
City
–
A city is a large and permanent human settlement. Cities generally have complex systems for sanitation, utilities, land usage, housing, a big city or metropolis usually has associated suburbs and exurbs. Such cities are associated with metropolitan areas and urban areas. Once a city expands far enough to another city, this region can be deemed a conurbation or megalopolis. Damascus is arguably the oldest city in the world, in terms of population, the largest city proper is Shanghai, while the fastest-growing is Dubai. There is not enough evidence to assert what conditions gave rise to the first cities, some theorists have speculated on what they consider suitable pre-conditions and basic mechanisms that might have been important driving forces. The conventional view holds that cities first formed after the Neolithic revolution, the Neolithic revolution brought agriculture, which made denser human populations possible, thereby supporting city development. The advent of farming encouraged hunter-gatherers to abandon nomadic lifestyles and to settle near others who lived by agricultural production, the increased population density encouraged by farming and the increased output of food per unit of land created conditions that seem more suitable for city-like activities. In his book, Cities and Economic Development, Paul Bairoch takes up position in his argument that agricultural activity appears necessary before true cities can form. According to Vere Gordon Childe, for a settlement to qualify as a city, it must have enough surplus of raw materials to support trade and a relatively large population. To illustrate this point, Bairoch offers an example, Western Europe during the pre-Neolithic, when the cost of transport is taken into account, the figure rises to 200,000 square kilometres. Bairoch noted that this is roughly the size of Great Britain, the urban theorist Jane Jacobs suggests that city formation preceded the birth of agriculture, but this view is not widely accepted. In his book City Economics, Brendan OFlaherty asserts Cities could persist—as they have for thousands of years—only if their advantages offset the disadvantages, OFlaherty illustrates two similar attracting advantages known as increasing returns to scale and economies of scale, which are concepts usually associated with businesses. Their applications are seen in more basic economic systems as well, increasing returns to scale occurs when doubling all inputs more than doubles the output an activity has economies of scale if doubling output less than doubles cost. To offer an example of these concepts, OFlaherty makes use of one of the oldest reasons why cities were built, in this example, the inputs are anything that would be used for protection and the output is the area protected and everything of value contained in it. OFlaherty then asks that we suppose the protected area is square, the advantage is expressed as, O = s 2, where O is the output and s stands for the length of a side. This equation shows that output is proportional to the square of the length of a side, the inputs depend on the length of the perimeter, I =4 s, where I stands for the quantity of inputs. So there are increasing returns to scale, O = I2 /16 and this equation shows that with twice the inputs, you produce quadruple the output

2.
Texas
–
Texas is the second largest state in the United States by both area and population. Other major cities include Austin, the second most populous state capital in the U. S. Texas is nicknamed the Lone Star State to signify its former status as an independent republic, and as a reminder of the states struggle for independence from Mexico. The Lone Star can be found on the Texan state flag, the origin of Texass name is from the word Tejas, which means friends in the Caddo language. Due to its size and geologic features such as the Balcones Fault, although Texas is popularly associated with the U. S. southwestern deserts, less than 10 percent of Texas land area is desert. Most of the centers are located in areas of former prairies, grasslands, forests. Traveling from east to west, one can observe terrain that ranges from coastal swamps and piney woods, to rolling plains and rugged hills, the term six flags over Texas refers to several nations that have ruled over the territory. Spain was the first European country to claim the area of Texas, Mexico controlled the territory until 1836 when Texas won its independence, becoming an independent Republic. In 1845, Texas joined the United States as the 28th state, the states annexation set off a chain of events that caused the Mexican–American War in 1846. A slave state before the American Civil War, Texas declared its secession from the U. S. in early 1861, after the Civil War and the restoration of its representation in the federal government, Texas entered a long period of economic stagnation. One Texan industry that thrived after the Civil War was cattle, due to its long history as a center of the industry, Texas is associated with the image of the cowboy. The states economic fortunes changed in the early 20th century, when oil discoveries initiated a boom in the state. With strong investments in universities, Texas developed a diversified economy, as of 2010 it shares the top of the list of the most Fortune 500 companies with California at 57. With a growing base of industry, the leads in many industries, including agriculture, petrochemicals, energy, computers and electronics, aerospace. Texas has led the nation in export revenue since 2002 and has the second-highest gross state product. The name Texas, based on the Caddo word tejas meaning friends or allies, was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves, during Spanish colonial rule, the area was officially known as the Nuevo Reino de Filipinas, La Provincia de Texas. Texas is the second largest U. S. state, behind Alaska, though 10 percent larger than France and almost twice as large as Germany or Japan, it ranks only 27th worldwide amongst country subdivisions by size. If it were an independent country, Texas would be the 40th largest behind Chile, Texas is in the south central part of the United States of America. Three of its borders are defined by rivers, the Rio Grande forms a natural border with the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas to the south

3.
United States
–
Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci

4.
Brazoria County, Texas
–
Brazoria County is a county in the U. S. state of Texas. As of the 2010 census, the population of the county was 313,166, Brazoria County is included in the Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, TX Metropolitan Statistical Area. It is located in the Gulf Coast region of Texas, regionally, parts of the county are within the extreme southernmost fringe of the regions locally known as Southeast Texas. Brazoria County is among a number of counties that are part of the known as the Texas Coastal Bend. Its county seat is Angleton, and its largest city is Pearland, Brazoria County, like nearby Brazos County, takes its name from the Brazos River. The county also includes what was once Velasco, Texas, which was the first capital of the Republic of Texas and it served as the first settlement area for Anglo-Texas, when the Old Three Hundred emigrated from the United States in 1821. Brazoria County, like Brazos County, takes its name from the Brazos River, Anglo-Texas began in Brazoria County when the first of Stephen F. Austins authorized 300 American settlers arrived at the mouth of the Brazos River in 1821. Many of the leading to the Texas Revolution developed in Brazoria County. In 1832, Brazoria was organized as a municipal district by the Mexican government. An early resident of Brazoria County, Joel Walter Robison, fought in the Texas Revolution, Stephen F. Austins original burial place is located at a church cemetery, Gulf Prairie Cemetery, in the town of Jones Creek, on what was his brother-in-laws Peach Point Plantation. His remains were exhumed in 1910 and brought to be reinterred at the capital in Austin. The town of West Columbia served as the first capital of Texas, Temple Lea Houston, youngest son of Sam Houston, was c.1880 the county attorney of Brazoria County. His life story is reflected in the 1963 film The Man from Galveston, lake Jackson is a community developed beginning in the early 1940s to provide housing to workers at a new Dow Chemical Company plant in nearby Freeport. The county has elements of rural and suburban communities, as it is part of the Greater Houston area. On June 2,2016, the flooding of the Brazos River required evacuations for portions of Brazoria County. According to the U. S. Census Bureau, the county has an area of 1,609 square miles. The population density was 174 people per square mile, there were 90,628 housing units at an average density of 65 per square mile. The racial makeup of the county was 77. 09% White,8. 50% Black or African American,0. 53% Native American,2. 00% Asian,0. 03% Pacific Islander,9. 63% from other races, and 2. 22% from two or more races

5.
ZIP Code
–
ZIP Codes are a system of postal codes used by the United States Postal Service since 1963. The term ZIP, an acronym for Zone Improvement Plan, was chosen to suggest that the travels more efficiently, and therefore more quickly. The basic format consists of five numerical digits, an extended ZIP+4 code, introduced in 1983, includes the five digits of the ZIP Code, a hyphen, and four additional digits that determine a more specific location within a given ZIP Code. The term ZIP Code was originally registered as a servicemark by the U. S. Postal Service, USPS style for ZIP is all caps and the c in code is also capitalized, although style sheets for some publications use sentence case or lowercase. The early history and context of postal codes began with postal district/zone numbers, the United States Post Office Department implemented postal zones for numerous large cities in 1943. For example, Mr. John Smith 3256 Epiphenomenal Avenue Minneapolis 16, by the early 1960s a more organized system was needed, and on July 1,1963, non-mandatory five-digit ZIP Codes were introduced nationwide. Three months later, on October 1,1963, the U. S, an earlier list in June had proposed capitalized abbreviations ranging from two to five letters. The abbreviations have remained unchanged, with one exception, according to the historian of the U. S. Robert Moon, an employee of the post office, is considered the father of the ZIP Code, he submitted his proposal in 1944 while working as a postal inspector. The post office gives credit to Moon only for the first three digits of the ZIP Code, which describe the sectional center facility or sec center, an SCF is a central mail processing facility with those three digits. The SCF sorts mail to all post offices with those first three digits in their ZIP Codes, the mail is sorted according to the final two digits of the ZIP Code and sent to the corresponding post offices in the early morning. Sectional centers do not deliver mail and are not open to the public, Mail picked up at post offices is sent to their own SCF in the afternoon, where the mail is sorted overnight. The United States Post Office used a character, which it called Mr. ZIP. He was often depicted with a such as USE ZIP CODE in the selvage of panes of stamps or on labels contained in, or the covers of. In 1983, the U. S. Postal Service introduced an expanded ZIP Code system that it called ZIP+4, often called plus-four codes, add-on codes, or add ons. But initial attempts to promote use of the new format met with public resistance. For Post Office Boxes, the rule is that each box has its own ZIP+4 code. However, there is no rule, so the ZIP+4 Code must be looked up individually for each box. It is common to use add-on code 9998 for mail addressed to the postmaster,9999 for general delivery, for a unique ZIP Code, the add-on code is typically 0001

6.
Greater Houston
–
Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land is a nine-county metropolitan area defined by the Office of Management and Budget. It is located along the Gulf Coast region in the U. S. state of Texas, the metropolitan area is colloquially referred to as Greater Houston and is situated in Southeast Texas. The population of the area is centered in the city of Houston—the largest economic. Houston is among the metropolitan areas in the United States. From 2000 to 2007, the area grew by 912,994 people, from 2000 to 2030, the metropolitan area is projected by Woods & Poole Economics to rank fifth in the nation in population growth—adding 2.66 million people. It is a part of the Texas Triangle megapolitan area, the OMB lumps the Houston-The Woodlands-Sugarland MSA with four micropolitan statistical areas to form the Houston-The Woodlands, TX Combined Statistical Area. Bay City, Brenham, El Campo, and Huntsville, the metropolitan area is located in the Gulf Coastal Plains biome, and its vegetation is classified as temperate grassland. Much of the area was built on forested land, marshes, swamp. The Houston area land mass is very diverse, there is forested land and hills to the north, beaches and grasslands to the south, swamps and marshlands to the east, rice fields and praires to the west. Much of the Houston metropolitan area is flat, making flooding a recurring problem for some areas. Underpinning Houstons land surface are unconsolidated clays, clay shales, the regions geology developed from stream deposits formed from the erosion of the Rocky Mountains. These sediments consist of a series of sands and clays deposited on decaying organic matter that, over time, transformed into oil, beneath these tiers is a water-deposited layer of halite, a rock salt. The porous layers were compressed over time and forced upward, as it pushed upward, the salt dragged surrounding sediments into dome shapes, often trapping oil and gas that seeped from the surrounding porous sands. This thick, rich soil provides a good environment for rice farming in suburban outskirts into which the city continues to grow near Katy. Evidence of past rice farming is still evident in developed areas as an abundance of rich, dark. The Houston region is generally earthquake-free and these faults generally move at a smooth rate in what is termed fault creep. As defined by the Office of Management and Budget, the area of Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land encompasses nine counties in Texas. They are listed below with figures as of the 2010 U. S. Census

7.
Union Pacific Railroad
–
The Union Pacific Railroad is a freight hauling railroad that operates 8,500 locomotives over 32,100 route-miles in 23 states west of Chicago, Illinois and New Orleans, Louisiana. The Union Pacific Railroad network is the largest in the United States and it is also one of the worlds largest transportation companies. Union Pacific Railroad is the operating company of Union Pacific Corporation. Union Pacific Corporations main competitor is the BNSF Railway, the second largest freight railroad. Together, the two railroads have a duopoly on all freight rail lines in the U. S. The original company was incorporated on July 1,1862, under an act of Congress entitled Pacific Railroad Act of 1862. The act was approved by President Abraham Lincoln, and it provided for the construction of railroads from the Missouri River to the Pacific as a war measure for the preservation of the Union. It was constructed westward from Council Bluffs, Iowa to meet the Central Pacific Railroad line, the line was constructed primarily by Irish labor who had learned their craft during the recent Civil War. The two lines were joined together at Promontory Summit, Utah,53 miles west of Ogden on May 10,1869, hence creating the first transcontinental railroad in North America. Under the guidance of its dominant stockholder Dr. Thomas Clark Durant, the namesake of the city of Durant, Iowa, the first rails were laid in Omaha. It built or purchased local lines that gave it access to Denver, Colorado, to Portland, Oregon and it also owned narrow gauge trackage into the heart of the Colorado Rockies and a standard gauge line south from Denver across New Mexico into Texas. UP was entangled in the Crédit Mobilier scandal, exposed in 1872 and its independent construction company the Crédit Mobilier had bribed congressmen. The UP itself was not guilty but it did get bad publicity, the financial crisis of 1873 led to financial troubles but not bankruptcy. The company was reorganized as the Union Pacific Railway on January 24,1880, the new company declared bankruptcy during the Panic of 1893. When it emerged in 1897 it reverted to the original name, the corporate headquarters of the Union Pacific Corporation were located in New York City from its initial founding in the 1860s until Drew Lewis became CEO in the mid-1980s. He relocated it to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, later the headquarters was shifted to Dallas, Texas, before relocating to Omaha to join the operating headquarters. From the ICC annual reports, except 1979 is from Moodys, on December 31,1925 UP-OSL-OWRN-LA&SL-StJ&GI operated 9,834 route-miles and 15,265 track-miles. At the end of 1980, Union Pacific operated 9,266 route-miles and 15,647 miles of track, Moodys shows 220,697 million revenue ton-miles in 1993 on the expanded system

8.
Texas's 14th congressional district
–
The district now stretches from Freeport to Beaumont. The district was created as a result of the 1900 U. S. Census and was first contested in 1902, the Galveston area had previously been included in Texas 10th congressional district. Its first representative was the Democrat James L. Slayden, based in San Antonio and he was elected from the new district and began representing the 14th in March 1903 as a member of the 58th United States Congress. He was repeatedly re-elected and served until 1919, Republican Harry M. Wurzbach carried this district in several elections, from 1920 to 1926, serving from 1921 to 1929. He successfully contested the election of 1928, taking his seat in 1930 for the remainder of the term, the district included Guadalupe County, whose German Americans had historically opposed slavery and supported the Republican Party well into the 20th century. In addition, Galveston was a port of entry for immigrants. At that time, many found the Republican Party more welcoming than the dominant Democratic Party, in 1901, the Democratic-dominated legislature had passed a poll tax, which effectively had disfranchised most blacks and many poor whites and Latinos. A few Democrats have won local and state elections in the 1990s, the eastern portion of the district includes some of Houstons suburbs. Former Republican and Libertarian Presidential candidate Ron Paul held congressional office from 1996 to 2012, the districts current representative is the Republican Randy Weber. The incumbent Harry M. Wurzbach successfully contested the 1928 election of the Democrat Augustus McCloskey to the 71st United States Congress, in one of the stranger Congressional elections of modern times, the incumbent Greg Laughlin switched from the Democratic Party to the Republican in 1995. The Republican National Committee, hoping to encourage other Democrats to switch parties and he had support from Republican leaders, including House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Texas Governor George W. Bush, and the National Rifle Association and other interest groups. Ron Paul, an ob/gyn and former U. S, representative from Texass 22nd congressional district, opposed Laughlin. Paul hoped to have influence in Congress after the Republicans took over both houses in the 1994 election. Though Laughlin defeated Paul in the primary, a runoff between the two candidates followed. Charles Lefty Morris, a lawyer, was Pauls Democratic opponent in the fall election, he was strongly supported by the AFL-CIO. Pauls campaign responded at the time that voters might not understand the tongue-in-cheek, academic quotes out of context, Pauls large contributor base outraised Morris two-to-one, giving him nearly $2 million, the third-highest amount of individual contributions received by any House member. In his campaign, Paul characterized Morris as a tool of trial lawyers, Paul won the election by a close margin of 51% to 48%, the third time he had been elected to Congress as a non-incumbent. In 1998 Paul again won the Republican primary, the Democratic primary candidates included education professor Margaret Dunn, former congressional aide Roger Elliott, car dealer Tom Reed, and Bay City rice farmer and cattle rancher Loy Sneary

9.
Houston
–
Houston is the most populous city in the state of Texas and the fourth-most populous city in the United States. With a census-estimated 2014 population of 2.239 million within an area of 667 square miles, it also is the largest city in the southern United States and the seat of Harris County. Located in Southeast Texas near the Gulf of Mexico, it is the city of Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land. Houston was founded on August 28,1836, near the banks of Buffalo Bayou and incorporated as a city on June 5,1837. The city was named after former General Sam Houston, who was president of the Republic of Texas and had commanded, the burgeoning port and railroad industry, combined with oil discovery in 1901, has induced continual surges in the citys population. Houstons economy has an industrial base in energy, manufacturing, aeronautics. Leading in health care sectors and building equipment, Houston has more Fortune 500 headquarters within its city limits than any city except for New York City. The Port of Houston ranks first in the United States in international waterborne tonnage handled, the city has a population from various ethnic and religious backgrounds and a large and growing international community. Houston is the most diverse city in Texas and has described as the most diverse in the United States. It is home to cultural institutions and exhibits, which attract more than 7 million visitors a year to the Museum District. Houston has a visual and performing arts scene in the Theater District. In August 1836, two real estate entrepreneurs from New York, Augustus Chapman Allen and John Kirby Allen, purchased 6,642 acres of land along Buffalo Bayou with the intent of founding a city. The Allen brothers decided to name the city after Sam Houston, the general at the Battle of San Jacinto. The great majority of slaves in Texas came with their owners from the slave states. Sizable numbers, however, came through the slave trade. New Orleans was the center of trade in the Deep South. Thousands of enslaved African Americans lived near the city before the Civil War, many of them near the city worked on sugar and cotton plantations, while most of those in the city limits had domestic and artisan jobs. Houston was granted incorporation on June 5,1837, with James S. Holman becoming its first mayor, in the same year, Houston became the county seat of Harrisburg County and the temporary capital of the Republic of Texas

10.
Bay City, Texas
–
Bay City is a city in Matagorda County, Texas, United States. The population was 17,614 at the 2010 census and it is the county seat of Matagorda County. The current mayor is Mark Bricker, according to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 8.5 square miles, of which 8.5 square miles is land and 0. 12% is covered by water. Bay City was formerly named Bay Prairie, as the ecosystems that surround the town are prairies crisscrossed by creeks that lead into the bay. The climate in this area is characterized by hot, humid summers, according to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Bay City has a humid subtropical climate, abbreviated Cfa on climate maps. As of the census of 2000,18,667 people,6,912 households, the population density was 2,196.0 people per square mile. There were 8,113 housing units at a density of 954.4 per square mile. The racial makeup of the city was 61. 62% White,17. 26% African American,0. 74% Native American,0. 88% Asian,0. 07% Pacific Islander,16. 84% from other races, and 2. 59% from two or more races. Hispanics or Latinos of any race were 34. 74% of the population, about 27. 1% of all households were made up of individuals and 10. 5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.66 and the family size was 3.25. In the city, the population was distributed as 30. 9% under the age of 18,9. 8% from 18 to 24,28. 2% from 25 to 44,20. 0% from 45 to 64, the median age was 32 years. For every 100 females, there were 95.0 males, for every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 91.1 males. The median income for a household in the city was $30,446, males had a median income of $38,202 versus $23,058 for females. The per capita income for the city was $15,284, about 18. 3% of families and 21. 4% of the population were below the poverty line, including 27. 7% of those under age 18 and 14. 3% of those age 65 or over. Minorities make up the largest ethnic portion of Bay City, Texas, Bay City formerly housed the headquarters of Stanley Stores. The chain made several donations to the Bay City Museum, Bay City is home to the Matagorda County Birding Nature Center, a 35-acre expanse of gardens and wildlife along the Colorado River of Texas. Other attractions include the Matagorda County Museum, Market Days every 3rd Saturday, the Bay City Art League, also located here, has recently undergone major renovations and is currently working to revitalize the art scene in Matagorda County. In addition, the Bay City Community Theatre group regularly produces shows at local venues

11.
Marriage
–
The definition of marriage varies according to different cultures, but it is principally an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually sexual, are acknowledged. In some cultures, marriage is recommended or considered to be compulsory before pursuing any sexual activity, when defined broadly, marriage is considered a cultural universal. Individuals may marry for several reasons, including legal, social, libidinal, emotional, financial, spiritual, whom they marry may be influenced by socially determined rules of incest, prescriptive marriage rules, parental choice and individual desire. In some areas of the world, arranged marriage, child marriage, polygamy, conversely, such practices may be outlawed and penalized in parts of the world out of concerns for womens rights and because of international law. These trends coincide with the human rights movement. Marriage can be recognized by a state, an organization, an authority, a tribal group. It is often viewed as a contract, Marriages can be performed in a secular civil ceremony or in a religious setting via a wedding ceremony. The act of marriage usually creates normative or legal obligations between the individuals involved, and any offspring they may produce, some cultures allow the dissolution of marriage through divorce or annulment. In some areas, child marriages and polygamy may occur in spite of laws against the practice. For example, the number of marriages in Europe decreased by 30% from 1975 to 2005 and these changes have occurred primarily in Western countries. The word marriage derives from Middle English mariage, which first appears in 1250–1300 CE and this in turn is derived from Old French, marier, and ultimately Latin, marītāre, meaning to provide with a husband or wife and marītāri meaning to get married. The adjective marīt-us -a, -um meaning matrimonial or nuptial could also be used in the form as a noun for husband. Anthropologists have proposed several competing definitions of marriage in an attempt to encompass the wide variety of marital practices observed across cultures, even within Western culture, definitions of marriage have careened from one extreme to another and everywhere in between. The anthropological handbook Notes and Queries defined marriage as a union between a man and a such that children born to the woman are the recognized legitimate offspring of both partners. In recognition of a practice by the Nuer people of Sudan allowing women to act as a husband in certain circumstances, Kathleen Gough suggested modifying this to a woman, none of these men had legal rights to the womans child. Economic anthropologist Duran Bell has criticized the definition on the basis that some societies do not require marriage for legitimacy. He argued that a definition of marriage is circular in societies where illegitimacy has no other legal or social implications for a child other than the mother being unmarried. In 1955 article in Man, Leach argued that no one definition of marriage applied to all cultures and he offered a list of ten rights associated with marriage, including sexual monopoly and rights with respect to children, with specific rights differing across cultures

12.
Texas Department of Criminal Justice
–
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice is a department of the government of the U. S. state of Texas. The TDCJ operates the largest prison system in the United States, the department has its headquarters in the BOT Complex in Huntsville and offices at the Price Daniel Sr. In 1848, the Texas Legislature passed An Act to Establish a State Penitentiary, land was acquired in Huntsville and Rusk for later facilities. The prison system began as an institution, located in Huntsville. A second prison facility, Rusk Penitentiary, began receiving convicts in January 1883, before the Ruiz v. Estelle court case, the Texas Department of Corrections had 18 units, including 16 for males and 2 for females. Various administrative changes where the organization of the board of the department occurred over the next one hundred years. In 1921 George W. Dixon of The Prison Journal published a report on the Texas Prison System facilities and his article stated that the prisons were among the most brutal in the world. Dixon said that the prisons featured corporal punishment such as whipping, beatings, in 1989, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and the Board of Criminal Justice were created. The Board is composed of nine appointed by the governor with the advice. This new agency absorbed functions of three agencies, the Texas Department of Corrections, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles. In the 1980s the government of Texas began building more prisons, during that decade impoverished rural communities saw the prisons as a boon as they provided jobs. The TDC units in Amarillo and Snyder were the first ones located outside of Central Texas, shirley Southerland, a prisoner at the Hobby Unit, stated that her fellow prisoners discovered that the VitaPro product was intended for consumption by canines. Collins arranged for VitaPro to be used while he was still the head of the TDCJ. Collins had awarded a $33.7 million contract to the company, draper reasoned If and other board members didn’t care about ethics, why should Andy Collins. According to a December 2007 survey of prisoners from the U. S, in 2007 the TDCJ reported that there were a total of 234 reported sexual assaults in its prisons. Michelle Lyons, the TDCJ spokesperson, said The actual reports we have are not consistent with the results in the survey, but because its anonymous, theres no way for us to verify that additional number. In 2008 the TDCJ planned to install cell phone jamming devices at its units, in 2013 the TDCJ had signed a deal for a climate controlled housing system for pig breeding, this was worth $750,000. In response, John Whitmire of the Texas House of Representatives stated the people of Texas dont want air-conditioned prisons and its hot in Texas, and a lot of Texans who are not in prison dont have air conditioning. That year, a judge declared that the TDCJ is making it impossible for Muslim inmates to practice their religion